How Common Browser Extensions Make Money

• Ad Blocking:

Paid advertisers can get whitelisted to allow certain ads through, which generates revenue;

• Network Advertising Revenue:

One approach is to embed affiliate links that earn income once you have traffic; another is to act as an advertising intermediary for content platforms, taking a commission when they monetize.

Earn affiliate ad money directly — in China there's JD Alliance, Taobao Alliance, Pinduoduo, Meituan, and so on; or earn indirectly by making affiliate commissions through middlemen, like Duomai Alliance in China. You can also consider becoming an affiliate intermediary to earn advertising fees, service charges, or commissions (act as your own affiliate middleman, such as Duomai Alliance in China, Taobao affiliate WordPress plugin, or Yieldkit abroad).

• Secretly mine crypto by hijacking users' device performance
• Free with limits, paid to remove restrictions — monetize paying users
• Secretly inject ads into web browsing (typically affiliate ads)
• Change the search engine to earn ad revenue from search
• Sell user data (already illegal in most jurisdictions)